ABSTRACT
Mandeville, whose name indicates French extraction, 1 says that the achievement which is attributed to the invention or the genius of an individual would be impossible without the long unconscious cooperation of a number of generations. It is so, for example, in language and in religion. Society, similarly, is the result of continuous human manipulation, and, indeed, is an artificial product, a veritable work of art. Man is not capable of indefinite progress, for human nature will remain forever essentially what is has been through thousands of years, and however long the world may endure, human nature will not change. The purpose of his work, “The Fable of the Bees,” Mandeville says, is
to shew the Vileness of the Ingredients that all together compose the wholesome Mixture of Political Wisdom, by the help of which so beautiful a Machine is rais'd from the most contemptible Branches. For the main Design of the Fable (as it is briefly explain'd in the Moral) is to shew the Impossibility of enjoying all the most elegant Comforts of Life that are to be met with in an industrious, wealthy, and powerful Nation, and at the same time be bless'd with all the Virtue and Innocence that can be wish'd for in a Golden Age; from thence to expose the Unreasonableness and Folly of those, that desirous of being an opulent and flourishing People, and wonderfully greedy after all the Benefits they can receive as such, are yet always murmuring at and exclaiming against those vices and Inconveniences, that from the Beginning of the World to this present Day, have been inseparable from all Kingdoms and States that ever were fam'd for Strength, Riches, and Politeness … If mankind could be cured of the Failings they are Naturally guilty of, they would cease to be capable of being rais'd into such vast, potent and polite Societies, as they have been under the several great Commonwealths and Monarchies that have flourished since the Creation.
